From the forest, I could feel a collision of immense magical power from afar.
A clash of magical power that could only occur when two experts of at least level 80 clashed with all their might.
'What’s going on?'
It was easy to guess that one of them was Jerel, the shining knight who was currently in the forest.
The problem was, who was the other person?
Until just a little while ago, I had a suspicion that the abbot might be involved in this incident.
But it didn’t make sense that the person fighting right now against Jerel to be the abbot.
Because his level was at most in the 60s.
If he had fought against Jerel, who was over level 80, he would have been defeated or subdued in the blink of an eye.
And there was no one else in the monastery who had a level comparable to Jerel.
So who exactly was the person fighting now, if not the abbot? Then a third party?
“...!”
As I got closer to the scene, the first thing that caught my eye was the aura spreading through the forest like a mist.
An unpleasant, eerie aura full of foreboding.
I had felt this aura before. It was from Ditrodemian.
I had only experienced it once, but I could never forget the distinctive aura of the demons.
'...Demon!'
The golden aura was fiercely mingled with the crimson aura, but at some point it completely faded away, as if it had lost all its strength. Was it because Jerel was defeated?
I was a little late, but I managed to arrive just in time to prevent something irreparable from happening.
What began to come into view in the distance was Jerel, who had collapsed, and a man with ash-colored skin standing on the opposite side. He was a demon. And Erica and Heron were also watching the scene with pale, horrified faces from a little distance away.
'Why are those two here?'
No, that wasn’t important right now.
The demon was gathering an enormous amount of power, as if it were about to completely destroy Jerel.
I immediately teleported to Jerel’s front and put out a barrier. At the same time, a wave of bloody energy swept over the spot where I was standing.
Kugugugu.
The demon who had withdrawn his hand looked at me with suspicion. I briefly met his eyes before turning my head.
Jerel was looking up at me with a look of astonishment and bewilderment. “You are...?”
Although we had only met briefly before, his reaction indicated that he remembered my face.
“Ethan?”
Erica and Heron were also staring at me with a dazed expression. I simply gestured for them to step back and turned my gaze back to the front.
[Level 85]
The level floating above his head was 85. It wasn’t very high, but it was still a considerable level of strength. He was an opponent who was too strong for Jerel, who was at level 81.
“Annoyingly, new bugs keep popping up.”
The demon muttered in an irritated voice.
He spoke as if nothing was wrong, but he was clearly observing me with a guarded look.
It’s only natural to be cautious if someone suddenly appeared and easily blocked their own attack.
He’s a demon who had crossed over into the territory of Santea and was scheming something.
Demons were generally arrogant and vicious, but few among them were willing to make deals.
'By the way...'
I noticed a dry, scattered corpse on the ground.
I narrowed my eyes at it.
The body of the abbot. I couldn’t recognize his face, but his clothing matched what I remembered, so it was probably him.
“Was the abbot a villain?”
I asked Jerel.
He stared blankly and answered in a hoarse voice.
“...Yes.”
“That demon must have made a contract with the abbot.”
Typically, when demons engage in activities outside of their territory, it’s simple. They would call upon their contractors and took payment in the form of souls or life force, or weaker demons simply prey on human flesh and blood.
That’s why attacks on villages or small towns by hidden demons who attack and eat people were not uncommon, but this guy was probably not one of those demons.
He was a demon with a level in his 80s, making him one of the top demons. It was puzzling what he was up to in a remote monastery.
'Okay, if it’s about demons at this level...'
No way?
A thought crossed my mind.
A concept that had appeared steadily in the dialogue during playthrough, even though it was not directly related to the episode in the game.
The demon’s seed that demons sought to hasten the resurrection of the Demon King.
Could it really be that?
I glanced at Erica, who was standing on one side.
For some reason, I felt that the demon’s gaze had been strangely conscious of her since earlier.
“The demon’s seed.”
As I spoke the words, the expression of the demon stiffened crisply.
I could be sure that my guess was correct based on his reaction.
This demon was here at the monastery because of the demon’s seed.
And that seed of demons was probably Erica.
“The demon’s... seed?”
Jerel murmured as he listened to what I had just said.
As it was still early for the demons to be rampant, and it was a top-secret matter even among themselves, there was no one who knew this concept except for the hero.
However, she couldn’t talk about some things like the seed of demons because of various restrictions.
“That girl was a ‘demon’s seed’.”
As I spoke with certainty, the demon who had been silent opened his mouth again.
“How...did you find out?”
The confusion was clearly written on the face of the demon, who had maintained a relaxed demeanor until a moment ago.
From his perspective, he must have wondered how I knew about the demon’s seed.
“Answer me, human. How do you know about it?”
I just shrugged my shoulders.
There was no reason to answer his question. I confirmed everything I needed to.
I said to Jerel, “Can you stand up?”
“Yes, yes...”
“Then step back. You’ll get in the way of the fight.”
Jerel got up, wobbling, and stepped back.
The demon didn’t wait patiently for him. After gathering a massive amount of crimson energy in his hand, he shot it out like a beam. I put up my [Floating Veil] again and easily blocked it.
“If you won’t answer, I’ll tear your flesh apart piece by piece and scatter it!”
The demon’s ominous energy stirred around him. The rays from the crimson orbs that appeared in the air moments ago were fired chaotically. But there was no need to avoid them. I just stood still and blocked all the attacks.
The crimson energy exploded and dispersed, and a dense fog of blood enveloped the surroundings. Since most of his energy was crimson, it reminded me of the scenery from my fight with the Tyrant, but naturally, it was nowhere near as strong as that.
“...!”
Once the attack was blocked, the demon began to show signs of increasing anxiety.
In the end, was there any way that someone like him could break through the impenetrable barrier that even an archdemon could not penetrate?
I spoke dryly to the guy who had paused his attack for a moment.
“Your attack won’t reach me.”
“...”
“You’re the one who should answer when I show mercy to your life. Was an archdemon involved in this incident?”
The guy in front of me wasn’t the problem right now.
What I was worried about was the intervention of another demon, in other words, another archdemon.
The seeds of the demon king were the most important issue for them, related to his resurrection.
It was hard to believe that an archdemon didn’t directly get involved in such an incident.
“How dare you?! A human like you!”
However, he did not answer my question and just raised his magic with a look of contempt and anger.
It was not a good sign that he seemed to be trying to launch a full-fledged fatal blow this time.
The crimson energy whirled above the demon’s head.
Of course, there was no reason to wait for it quietly.
He didn’t have any defense shields around his body.
I hesitated for a moment about whether to cut off his life here.
If I cut off his life here, I wouldn’t be able to extract any more information.
However, I couldn’t just keep taking his attacks, and if this continued, I felt like I would eventually have to retreat.
“...?!”
Before he could even finish preparing his attack, I teleported right in front of him.
His eyes widened in surprise for a moment, and that was the end of it.
The body of the man who was struck by [Instant Kill] collapsed on the ground. His magical power, which had been stirring in the air, scattered in an instant.
“...”
I looked down at the demon’s corpse for a moment, then turned my head. Jerel and two other people were staring blankly in this direction.
As I approached them, Jerel swallowed his saliva and asked, “What about that demon...?”
“He’s dead.”
“...May I ask who you are?”
“I’ll explain later. Let’s get out of the forest first.”
Jerel’s injuries were serious, and it wasn’t the time to have a leisurely conversation. I looked back at Erica and Heron.
“Are you guys okay?”
“...Yes, yes.”
Heron stumbled and couldn’t speak properly. The two of them looked very confused in this situation, as they had only seen my trembling figure in the monastery before, so it was understandable.
“But, um...”
Heron tried to say something, but stuttered and couldn’t speak properly. Erica stepped forward and said, “We still haven’t found Tom.”
At her words, I remembered the fact that I had momentarily forgotten.
Right, come to think of it, we were originally trying to find the missing children. But honestly, it was difficult to believe they were still alive.
I nodded my head and said, “I’ll search the forest again. Let’s go back to the monastery, since Sir Jerel’s injuries are severe.”
Seeing Jerel’s terrible condition, Erica obediently followed my words.
“But why did you come into the forest?”
“We sneaked in and Jerel rescued us.”
I could roughly guess the situation. They couldn’t just sit and wait since their friend was missing, so they came into the forest themselves. Since I wasn’t their guardian, I didn’t scold them about it.
Anyway, it was the moment when I was taking the three of them out of the forest...
I stopped walking abruptly and slowly turned my head to one side.
Suddenly, a dark energy rippled through the air, and something popped out like the space was splitting apart.
“What the hell is this?”
A woman with a large horn on her head and ash-colored skin appeared. The woman looked around swiftly and grumbled as if complaining before looking in my direction. When she made eye contact with me, she raised the corners of her mouth and smiled.
“Hello? What kind of human are you?”
I couldn’t help but remain silent. I had immediately recognized her true identity from her appearance.
A demon, Akasha, the 13th rank among the archdemons.
The anxiety that was in my mind became a reality as an archdemon had really appeared.
